The Early Years
My first pony was on loan when I was 4 years old and we only had him a short time. I can vaguely remember being on the lead rein at a show and we were doing the handy pony and we came to a small rubber swimming pool with rubber ducks in it. Willow reared up and I slid off the back... I wasn't bothered in the slightest and it think it was then that my mum realised I was going to be pretty fearless.
The first pony we owned was Scooby, a little grey pony who was a naughty little monkey. The day I went to try him he stopped at the second part of a double and I fell off. I got straight back on and kicked him over next time. Much to everyone's surprise I asked if we could have him. Scooby was a great pony and I learned such a lot from him. As a 5 year old child I was not sure about cantering down hills and would make Scooby go very slowly down them. Scooby decided one day that he'd had enough of this. He stopped at the top of the hill up on Kirkton Hill and I thought he was doing the loo. Well the little monkey bucked and took off flat out down the hill. Problem solved as I now thought going fast down hills was great fun. I had my first day hunting on him when I was 5 years old with the Liddesdale Hunt. I loved my first days’s Autum Hunting and that was the beginning of another passion of mine. From then on I would hunt rain, hail or shine. If I was ever asked if I was cold I would always say I wasn't (even though I was usually freezing) as I wanted to stay out.
The second pony we owned we bought from Raymond Sheils at Jedburgh, Kimmy, a very pretty little 12.2hh bay mare. Although Kimmy was very pretty she certainly could be a little madame! She was very naughty and would often try to buck or bronk me off, succeeding on quite a few occasions. I hunted Kimmy every Saturday and she started to behave much better. I then started taking her to Pony Club and although she could still be very naughty and would put in the odd dirty stop she taught me a lot, especially about staying on. As I grew stronger and managed to get Kimmy on side more often than not, we would win most of our competitions. However, if ever I became even the slightest bit big headed about winning she would be sure to buck me off, just to keep me grounded... literally.
Timmy was my third pony, a 13.1hh grey Newforest which we bought as a very green 4 year old from our good friend the late Bob Black. He was indeed very green and very naughty as he had really just been backed and lightly ridden. When I started taking him hunting he would buck at any opportunity but I was used to this from Kimmy so as ever it didn’t bother me in the slightest. I hunted Timmy a great deal and he progressed well when I started taking him to pony club. After lots and lots of lesson and many competitions Timmy and I were selected for pony club teams where we qualified for and competed at the Pony Club Area 19 dressage finals and the SJ finals at Gleneagles. Timmy and I were also on the games team and would always give the crowd of parents watching a good laugh as he would buck every stride in the race which did not amuse me as I was very competitive by this point and all the bucking was just slowing us down. Timmy was, I suppose, the 1st youngster I produced.
The first pony we owned was Scooby, a little grey pony who was a naughty little monkey. The day I went to try him he stopped at the second part of a double and I fell off. I got straight back on and kicked him over next time. Much to everyone's surprise I asked if we could have him. Scooby was a great pony and I learned such a lot from him. As a 5 year old child I was not sure about cantering down hills and would make Scooby go very slowly down them. Scooby decided one day that he'd had enough of this. He stopped at the top of the hill up on Kirkton Hill and I thought he was doing the loo. Well the little monkey bucked and took off flat out down the hill. Problem solved as I now thought going fast down hills was great fun. I had my first day hunting on him when I was 5 years old with the Liddesdale Hunt. I loved my first days’s Autum Hunting and that was the beginning of another passion of mine. From then on I would hunt rain, hail or shine. If I was ever asked if I was cold I would always say I wasn't (even though I was usually freezing) as I wanted to stay out.
The second pony we owned we bought from Raymond Sheils at Jedburgh, Kimmy, a very pretty little 12.2hh bay mare. Although Kimmy was very pretty she certainly could be a little madame! She was very naughty and would often try to buck or bronk me off, succeeding on quite a few occasions. I hunted Kimmy every Saturday and she started to behave much better. I then started taking her to Pony Club and although she could still be very naughty and would put in the odd dirty stop she taught me a lot, especially about staying on. As I grew stronger and managed to get Kimmy on side more often than not, we would win most of our competitions. However, if ever I became even the slightest bit big headed about winning she would be sure to buck me off, just to keep me grounded... literally.
Timmy was my third pony, a 13.1hh grey Newforest which we bought as a very green 4 year old from our good friend the late Bob Black. He was indeed very green and very naughty as he had really just been backed and lightly ridden. When I started taking him hunting he would buck at any opportunity but I was used to this from Kimmy so as ever it didn’t bother me in the slightest. I hunted Timmy a great deal and he progressed well when I started taking him to pony club. After lots and lots of lesson and many competitions Timmy and I were selected for pony club teams where we qualified for and competed at the Pony Club Area 19 dressage finals and the SJ finals at Gleneagles. Timmy and I were also on the games team and would always give the crowd of parents watching a good laugh as he would buck every stride in the race which did not amuse me as I was very competitive by this point and all the bucking was just slowing us down. Timmy was, I suppose, the 1st youngster I produced.